Born to Paint: An Interview with Nancy Mysak

Jeanette E. Sherbondy • July 5, 2022


Jeanette: Nancy, what does your painting mean for you?

 

Nancy: It’s my life! It always has been—all my life, as a child too.

 

Nancy Mysak, now of Allen, Md., grew up in Denton, where she remembers going into her dad’s workshop and making all kinds of things with wood. When she was in second grade, a neighbor who lived nearby, Nancy Asher, turned her garage into a studio for the town. There young Nancy discovered painting in tempura.

 

Nancy: I was fascinated!



When Nancy was in middle school, her mom arranged for her to take lessons once a week in St. Michael’s. She continued to paint and paint. While she was studying at Virginia Commonwealth University, her mother encouraged her not to paint for a living, and she recognized that she was probably right, so she transferred to Salisbury (State) University where she graduated with a degree in elementary education.

 

She taught school during the years when she was raising two daughters — until they graduated from college. And then she turned to painting full-time and has been painting ever since. She and her husband, Paul Mysak, live near Allen where they built a wonderful studio for her in their home.

 

She especially loved teaching kindergarteners. They made some incredibly beautiful things. One day a little girl she was teaching in kindergarten told her, “Mrs. Mysak, when you grow up someday you should be an artist!” Her reaction was to think, “You are the artists!”

 

Nancy found watercolor when her younger daughter was a baby, and she fell in love with professional watercolor paint. “It was so much better than oils and acrylics.” She worked with professionals in South Carolina and painted everywhere she went — on the west coast and the east, in Italy and France.

 

Nancy: It’s really been such a joy in my life!

 

Jeanette: What is an artist?

 

Nancy: I think it is a way to speak. I can say things. Painting for me is like speaking — telling my story. For as long as I can remember, I have used whatever materials were available to make drawings, paintings, and sculptures. Some of my early childhood attempts were truly indescribable! The vibrancy of color and the way light affects color as it falls on an object are usually what attract me to a subject. Nature provides an endless array of subject matter as the light and the atmosphere constantly change. When I have an emotional reaction to a subject, I usually make a quick sketch or take a photo of it. Then, in my studio, I work to capture that important image by using watercolor. I had worked for years painting in oils and acrylics and doing printmaking, but when I found watercolor, I fell in love! Journaling my feelings and experiences through my paintings is an essential and joyous part of my life.

 

I can paint something and an hour later it looks different. I have an emotional reaction. I fell in love with watercolor. It stops time for a moment and I keep what strikes me. I am now working with 40 photos of a subject. The result never ends up like any photo.



Jeanette: Tell me — what are you working on now?

 

Nancy: Icicles! Icicles on shrubbery that encase the branches and are melting a little.

 

Jeanette: Why icicles?

 

Nancy: For the natural beauty of them. Late in the day the light helped me see in shapes the partly melted ice. I love to paint water as ice, oceans, lakes and ponds.

 

A teacher from Florida, Jane Grastorf, taught Nancy how to work with poured paint. You block the parts that are to be white, pour the paint and let it dry. Then do layers and layers. Pour as much as you want but only one a day, though you can include several colors. This technique emphasizes shapes. It’s a way to avoid getting tied up in details. She does three layers. The drawing gets smaller with each pour and it changes color, such as red over blue making purple. “It’s exciting to see what happens. You never know what it’s going to be. It’s not painting but pouring shapes.”

 


This painting, “Old Man and the Sea” is one of her favorites that she made with pouring. This is of a man who was rowing in a harbor off the Atlantic Ocean in New England. She masked the boat and poured the water around him.

 

Nancy: Colors speak volumes. Not all artists like colors. Pouring gives you license to be sloppy and also have control! There’s nothing wrong with sloppy but you need to know when and where to use it.

 

Jeanette: I find it hard to rewire my head to think “backwards” to paint like this.

 

Nancy: It is thinking negatively. That is important in life too. So many things are said and the really important things are not said. Having this way of thinking is a “completion of utensils” — things to work with. It’s another way to think differently, that is, about what is not there. The important things are left out a lot of times.

 

What you don’t say is more important than what you do say sometimes. You give the idea and the person completes it. People react to my paintings differently. You give them the space to find what’s important to them. Everybody has a different story.

 

You can’t create and paint with anything else there. You have to start working and thinking about what I’m going to do. It’s so different from other stuff — it pushes everything else out. I give credit to Paul and the kids for supporting this habit. My studio — it’s just beautiful!

 

Nancy: You can view more of my work on my website at http://www.nancyormemysak.com, at the DWS show at the Lewes, Del. Public Library, from Aug. 1-30, 2022, and at the Nassau Vineyards in Lewes during the month of August, 2022.

 

Her icicles in paint will be there!



Jeanette E. Sherbondy is a retired anthropology professor from Washington College and has lived here since 1986. In retirement she has been active with the Kent County Historical Society and Sumner Hall, one of the organizers of Legacy Day, and helped get highway /historical markers recognizing Henry Highland Garnet. She published an article on her ethnohistorical research of the free Black village, Morgnec.



Common Sense for the Eastern Shore

Ocean City Restaurant Owners Who Backed Trump Now Struggle with Visa Crackdown

By CSES Staff • October 1, 2025
Heavily dependent on international students working under the J-1 visa program, Ocean City’s seasonal restaurants face a new difficulty after federal policy changes under the Trump administration. Each summer, roughly 3,300 J-1 visa holders arrive in Ocean City to help fill more than 12,000 seasonal jobs, according to the Maryland Restaurant Association. Many of these restaurant workers handle everything from cooking to serving customers. The U.S. State Department identifies Ocean City as the nation’s top destination for summer work travel exchange visitors. This year, the program was paused and later reinstated with new restrictions and federal investigations, which disrupted hiring and complicated staffing for the 2025 season. Nearly 60% of Worcester County voters supported Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Now, however, restaurant owners who backed Trump are confronted with the consequences of his administration’s visa policies, which threaten the flow of international workers upon which they rely. The disruption has led to worker shortages, operational difficulties, and uncertainty about future seasons. Restaurants that depend on J-1 students to meet demand during peak tourist months are preparing for further complications as federal reviews of visa programs continue. Local economic leaders warn that without these workers, Ocean City’s seasonal businesses could struggle to stay afloat. For restaurant owners and community members who overwhelmingly supported Trump, the new reality has raised questions about the resort town’s current workforce model under tighter immigration policies.

Poverty in MD-01 Will Increase with GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill

By Jan Plotczyk • October 1, 2025
Poverty in Maryland’s First Congressional District will increase because of the GOP’s budget reconciliation bill— the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — that was narrowly passed in July. Rep. Andrew P. Harris (R-MD01) voted to pass that wildly unpopular bill and to kick our neighbors off SNAP and Medicaid to give tax cuts to billionaires. That was a cruel choice. More of his constituents will be living in poverty because of the OBBBA’s cuts to programs that support people’s basic needs. Poverty Rates in Maryland’s First Congressional District The official poverty rate for MD-01 has hovered between 8.5% and 9.8% for the last seven years. (Poverty rates for congressional districts were not calculated for 2020 due to the pandemic.) In 2024, 72,800 of our neighbors were living in poverty.

Don’t be Fooled! OBBBA is Not a Tax Cut for Working Families!

By Jan Plotczyk • October 1, 2025
President Trump has recently realized — apparently — that his One Big Beautiful Bill Act is not universally beloved by the American people. Aside from GOP lawmakers, billionaires, and MAGA faithful, the measure has never enjoyed the support of anyone. Polling conducted up to the bill’s passage, and analyzed by G. Elliott Morris , showed that On average across pollsters and methods, 31% of Americans support the One Big Beautiful Bill, while 54% oppose it. That net rating of -23 is, to put it mildly, abysmal… [H]aving a majority against you with just a third in support is terrible! And the bill has not become any more popular since its passage. But instead of fixing the parts of the bill that average people detest — the cuts to social programs for families, the extended tax cuts for billionaires — Trump has decided to just rebrand the bill as something he thinks they’ll love. And having decided that a public relations fix is all that’s needed, the White House has told GOP legislators that the bill shall now be known as the Working Families Tax Cut Bill. What tax cuts for working Americans are in the bill? Tax credits. The bill includes modest increases in the Child Tax Credit and Child and Dependent Care Credit. The standard tax deduction. The bill increases the standard tax deduction for individuals by $750 and for couples by $1,500. The no-tax-on-tips provision. Trump touts this as a true working-class tax cut. But it does not benefit many because only 3% of workers earn tips, and one-third of those earn too little to pay federal taxes. The no-tax-on-overtime-pay provision. This sounds good, but the no-tax applies only to the “half” portion of time-and-a-half pay. If a worker earns $20/hour regular pay and $30/hour overtime pay, the first $20/hour of overtime pay is taxed; only the $10/hour of premium pay is not taxed. It is estimated that for the bottom 40% of workers by income, this will equate to a tax savings of $10/year. Those meager offerings cannot obscure the fact that the bill gives 45% of the tax cuts to the wealthy ; only 1% of the tax cuts go to the lowest fifth of wage earners. To pay for those tax cuts for the wealthy, the bill contains $1.4 trillion in benefits cuts that will affect lower income Americans: many millions will lose health insurance coverage, food assistance, and federal student financial aid. Any small tax benefit that accrues to lower income Americans from the OBBBA is more than offset by benefit losses and Trump’s new tariffs (a defacto sales tax). The Yale Budget Lab found that when one combines the effects of Trump’s tariffs and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, 90% of American families will end up worse off. Seventy per cent of households will face losses ranging from $780 to $2,570 each year. So, don’t be conned. Recognize Trump’s gaslighting for what it is, a desperate attempt to mislead and deceive the American people. Jan Plotczyk spent 25 years as a survey and education statistician with the federal government, at the Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics. She retired to Rock Hall.

Wicomico County Councilman Josh Hasting launches bid for House of Delegates in District 38B

By CSES Staff • October 1, 2025
Before a crowd at Burnish Brewing Company, Wicomico County Councilman Josh Hastings, a Democrat, launched his campaign for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 38B, setting up what is expected to be one of the most competitive races in the state in 2026. The seat is held by GOP Del. Barry Glassman, who was appointed after former Del. Carl Anderton accepted a position in the Wes Moore administration. Although Glassman begins the campaign with more than $30,000 in campaign funds and will run as the incumbent, the district — with a +7 advantage for Democrats — is considered a top pickup opportunity for House Democrats in Annapolis. Having grown up on Maryland’s first certified organic poultry farm in Mardela Springs, Hastings has built a career at the intersection of agriculture, environmental sustainability, and land use. Before gaining elected office, he spent 15 years in state and local policy and nonprofit leadership positions, including as executive director of Forever Maryland, a statewide nonprofit focused on conserving farms, forests, parks, and critical habitats. Since joining the County Council, Hastings has established himself as a productive legislator, and is credited with: Converting Pirate’s Wharf into a public park. Securing $200 million in county budget commitments for Salisbury firefighters. Advancing a countywide water and sewer master plan. Ensuring consistent above-maintenance-of-effort funding for Wicomico public schools. Championing major upgrades to parks and recreation facilities. He has also worked to: Expand pickleball opportunities at Harmon Field Park. Secure a new middle and high school in Mardela Springs. Address invasive species management. Public safety and quality of life have been recurring themes in his tenure, with Hastings backing investments in first responders and cleaner, healthier communities. Colleagues often note his ability to foster civil, thoughtful debate on complex issues. Hastings is no stranger to Annapolis. Earlier in his career, he served as an aide to Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee Chair Joan Carter Conway, where he wrote and helped to pass legislation reduce concussions in youth sports. On the campaign trail, Hastings emphasizes a platform focused on opportunity, affordability, and quality of life on the Shore. His priorities include: Creating more well-paying jobs that build on the region’s strengths while opening doors in growing industries Strengthening public schools with smaller class sizes and stronger pathways from arts to trades to higher education Tackling the housing shortage with more options for residents of all ages and abilities He also pledges to lower the cost of living by advocating for fair wages and more affordable essentials, such as food, energy, and housing. Hastings emphasizes community health and safety as central to his vision, with a focus on increasing access to health care, broadband, transportation, and recreational spaces. His platform stresses the need to protect the Shore’s clean water and healthy land while supporting farmers and a resource-based economy. At the heart of his message is a call for fairness and opportunity, and a government that works for everyday people rather than the few. His announcement also came with personal news: Hastings and his wife Alyssa are expecting their first child in April. With deep local roots, a track record of legislative success, and a competitive district in play, Hastings’ campaign launch signals that Democrats view District 38B as a pivotal race in the 2026 election cycle.

Gov. Wes Moore and Housing Sec. Jacob Day Celebrate Smith Island’s New High-Speed Internet

By CSES Staff • October 1, 2025
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Housing and Community Development Sec. Jacob Day were on Smith Island Sept. 24 to mark completion of an infrastructure milestone, the island’s first connection to high-speed internet. Funded by state grants, the $2 million broadband project was completed two months ahead of schedule, and will provide reliable internet access to residents, businesses, and schools on the island, where less than full connectivity has been a long-standing problem. Moore is the first governor to visit Smith Island since 1999, underscoring the administration’s focus on reaching often-overlooked communities. Residents welcomed the infrastructure improvement, noting that high-speed internet can enhance education, healthcare access, small business growth, and overall quality of life. Moore, a Democrat, has made broadband access a central part of his infrastructure agenda, with similar projects underway in other rural parts of the state. For Smith Island, this connection represents a long-awaited lifeline to the wider world, and a signal that Maryland’s leaders are paying attention.

Wicomico Councilman James Winn’s Religious Remarks Spark Controversy at Sept. 16 Meeting

By CSES Staff • October 1, 2025
Wicomico County Councilman James Winn (R-At Large) drew criticism at the Sept. 16 council meeting because of his extended religious rant that included pulling out a Bible and declaring he would “pray for non-Christians” in the wake of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s shooting death. During the meeting’s public remarks portion, Winn shifted from county business to a sermon-like address. He held up a Bible, quoted passages, and suggested that residents who do not identify as Christians need his prayers and guidance. Winn tied his comments to the recent death of Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA, framing it as a moment for Wicomico residents to recommit to Christian values. Several attendees called the outburst inappropriate for a public governmental meeting, noting that Winn blurred the line between his own religious faith and his role as an elected official. Critics argued the comments excluded non-Christian residents and showed a lack of respect for the county’s religious diversity. The council meeting continued after Winn’s remarks. Still, the episode has drawn sharp reactions on social media, with some residents calling the behavior “embarrassing” and “unbecoming of an elected leader.” Others are defending Winn, saying he was exercising his free speech and sharing a message of faith in a difficult moment. Council leadership did not formally intercede during the meeting. However, community members are suggesting that the county ought to adopt clear standards to prevent religious proselytizing during official sessions. The controversy arises as Wicomico County confronts pressing local issues, including land use debates and the fallout from its immigration enforcement partnership with ICE. For some residents, Winn’s comments were perceived as a distraction from the county's real work of governance.
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